Tag: 75th Republic Day

Indian Republic Day is a national festival of India that commemorates the enactment of the Constitution of India, which occurred on January 26, 1950. It is celebrated annually on 26th January and marks the day when the Constitution of India came into effect, making India a sovereign republic. While India gained independence from the British in 1947, but it wasn’t until 26 January 1950 that the Indian Constitution came into effect and India became a sovereign state, declaring it a republic. This day is celebrated with much pomp and fervour all over India, and in India’s capital Delhi, parades, tableaus and spectacular displays by the defense forces are showcased at Rajpath. The Indian flag is also hoisted all over the country.
The historical context of Republic Day of India goes back to India’s struggle for independence. Though India gained independence on 15th August 1947, it did not yet have its own constitution. Instead, its laws and governance system continued to be based on a modified version of the Government of India Act of 1935. On 29th August 1947, a resolution was moved in the Constituent Assembly for the appointment of a Drafting Committee to draft a permanent constitution of India. Accordingly, the Drafting Committee was appointed under the Chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The Committee introduced the final draft of the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly on 4th November 1948.
After many deliberations and some modifications, the Draft Constitution was declared as passed by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November 1949. A few provisions of the Constitution came into force on 26th November 1949 itself. However, the major part of the Constitution came into force on 26th January 1950. It was on that date that India truly became a sovereign republic.
The occasion on 26th January 1950 was marked by a salute of 21 guns and the unfurling of the Indian National Flag by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Thereafter, 26th January was recognized as the Republic Day of India.
26th January was specifically chosen as the ‘date of commencement’ of the Constitution because it was on this day in 1930 that Purna Swaraj Day was celebrated, following the resolution of the Lahore Session (December 1929) of the INC.
Though Indian Republic Day is celebrated across the country, the main event takes place in the national capital – New Delhi. A series of events unfold as the celebrations proceed. These events are listed below chronologically:
Pre-Parade Events
Beginning The Republic Day Celebrations begin on 23rd January (Parakram Divas or the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose). Prior to 2022, the Indian Republic Day Celebrations used to begin on 24th January. However, in the year 2022, the government changed the start date to 23rd January to include the birth anniversary of Netaji as part of the Republic Day Celebrations.
Republic Day Speech: Just one day preceding the Republic Day, the President of India addresses the nation. This address, usually known as the 26 January Republic Day Speech, outlines the nation’s achievements, challenges, and vision for the future.
Wreath-Laying at the Amar Jawan Jyoti: Early morning on Republic Day, the Prime Minister pays homage at the Amar Jawan Jyoti war memorial. This marks a symbolic start to the day’s official commemorations.
The Unfurling of the National Flag: The President arrives at the Kartavya Path (formerly known as Rajpath) and unfurls the national flag. This is followed by the playing of the National Anthem a 21-Gun Salute.
The Republic Day Parade commences after the unfurling of the national flag and forms the main part of the Republic Day Celebrations. Some of the major highlights of the parade include:
– Marching contingents from the Indian Armed Forces and Paramilitary Forces.
– Motorcycle stunts by ‘Dare Devils’
– Vibrant tableaux representing different States/UTs of India as well as departments/ministries of the government.
– Folk dance troupes from various states.
– Mesmerizing fly-past by various aircraft of the Indian Air Force conclude the parade.
Post-Parade Events
Bestowing of Padma Awards and Gallantry Awards: On the evening of the Republic Day, the President of India confers prestigious Padma Awards and Gallantry Awards to the respective awardees.
Beating Retreat Ceremony and Conclusion: The Beating Retreat Ceremony is held on 29th January and marks the conclusion of the Republic Day Celebrations.
Themes of Republic Day Celebrations 2024
The themes of the 75th Republic Day 2024 are: ‘Viksit Bharat’ and ‘Bharat – Loktantra ki Matruka’.
These themes have been selected in line with the honorable PM Narendra Modi’s views that ‘India is truly a mother of democracy’.
These themes will be reflected in the tableaux presented by various states and government departments, showcasing India’s progress in various sectors like technology, infrastructure, and cultural heritage.
Chief Guest of the Republic Day 2024
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, is the chief guest at India’s Republic Day Celebrations 2024. This is the 6th time that a French leader will be the chief guest on the Indian Republic Day.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the chief guest at the Republic Day last year.

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It frames fundamental political principles, procedures, practices, rights, powers, and duties of the government. It imparts constitutional supremacy and not parliamentary supremacy, as it is not created by the Parliament but, by a constituent assembly, and adopted by its people, with a declaration in its preamble. Parliament cannot override it.
The world’s longest constitution is the Indian’s constitution. At its commencement, it had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules. It consists of approximately 145,000 words, making it the second largest active constitution in the world. Currently, it has a preamble, 25 parts with 12 schedules, 5 appendices, 448 articles, and 101 amendments.
History
The constitution of India was adopted on the 26th of November, in the year 1949. However, it came to effect on the 26th of January, 1950. 26th of January is celebrated as the Republic Day of India.
It was adopted by the Constitution Assembly. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the chairman of the Drafting Committee, is widely considered to be the architect of the Constitution of India. After, the adoption of the constitution, The Union of India became the contemporary and modern Republic of India.Before 1947, India was divided into two main entities – British India which consisted of 11 provinces and the Princely states ruled by Indian princes under a subsidiary alliance policy.
The two entities merged to form the Indian Union, but many of the legacy systems in British India are followed even now. The historical underpinnings and evolution of the Indian Constitution can be traced to many regulations and acts passed before Indian Independence.
Indian democracy is a Parliamentary form of democracy where the executive is responsible to the Parliament. The Parliament has two houses – Loksabha and Rajyasabha. Also, the type of governance is Federal, ie there is a separate executive and legislature at the Center and States. We also have self-governance at local government levels.
All these systems owe their legacy to the British administration. Let us see the historical background of the Indian Constitution and its development through the years.
Regulating Act of 1773
The first step was taken by the British Parliament to control and regulate the affairs of the East India Company in India.
It designated the Governor of Bengal (Fort William) as the Governor-General (of Bengal).
Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of Bengal. Executive Council of the Governor-General was established (Four members). There was no separate legislative council.
It subordinated the Governors of Bombay and Madras to the Governor-General of Bengal.
The Supreme Court was established at Fort William (Calcutta) as the Apex Court in 1774.
It prohibited servants of the company from engaging in any private trade or accepting bribes from the natives. The Court of Directors ( the governing body of the company) should report its revenue.
Pitt’s India Act of 1784
Distinguished between commercial and political functions of the company.
Court of Directors for Commercial functions and Board of Control for political affairs.
Reduced the strength of the Governor General’s council to three members.
Placed the Indian affairs under the direct control of the British Government.
The company’s territories in India were called “the British possession of India”.
Governor’s councils were established in Madras and Bombay.
Charter Act of 1813
The Company’s monopoly over Indian trade was terminated; Trade with India was open to all British subjects.
Charter Act of 1833
Governor-General (of Bengal) became the Governor-General of India.
The First Governor-General of India was Lord William Bentick.
This was the final step towards centralization in British India.
The beginning of a Central legislature for India as the act also took away legislative powers of Bombay and Madras provinces.
The Act ended the activities of the East India Company as a commercial body and it became a purely administrative body.
Charter Act of 1853
The legislative and executive functions of the Governor-General’s Council were separated.
6 members in the Central Legislative Council. Four out of six members were appointed by the provisional governments of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, and Agra.
It introduced a system of open competition as the basis for the recruitment of civil servants of the Company (Indian Civil Service open for all).
Government of India Act of 1858
The rule of the Company was replaced by the rule of the Crown in India.
The powers of the British Crown were to be exercised by the Secretary of State for India
He was assisted by the Council of India, having 15 members
He was vested with complete authority and control over the Indian administration through the Viceroy as his agent
The Governor-General was made the Viceroy of India.
Lord Canning was the first Viceroy of India.
Abolished Board of Control and Court of Directors.
Indian Councils Act of 1861
It introduced Indian representation in institutions like the Viceroy’s executive and legislative council (non-official). 3 Indians entered the Legislative Council.
Legislative councils were established in centers and provinces.
It provided that the Viceroy’s Executive Council should have some Indians as non-official members while transacting the legislative businesses.
It accorded statutory recognition to the portfolio system.
Initiated the process of decentralization by restoring the legislative powers to the Bombay and the Madras Provinces.
India Council Act of 1892
Introduced indirect elections (nomination).
Enlarged the size of the legislative councils.
Enlarged the functions of the Legislative Councils and gave them the power to discuss the Budget and address questions to the Executive.
Indian Councils Act of 1909
This Act is also known as the Morley- Minto Reforms.
Direct elections to legislative councils; first attempt at introducing a representative and popular element.
It changed the name of the Central Legislative Council to the Imperial Legislative Council.
The member of the Central Legislative Council was increased to 60 from 16.
Introduced a system of communal representation for Muslims by accepting the concept of a ‘separate electorate’.
Indians for the first time in the Viceroy’s executive council. (Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, as the law member)
Government of India Act of 1919
This Act is also known as the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms.
The Central subjects were demarcated and separated from those of the Provincial subjects.
The scheme of dual governance, ‘Dyarchy’, was introduced in the Provincial subjects.
Under the dyarchy system, the provincial subjects were divided into two parts – transferred and reserved. On reserved subjects, the Governor was not responsible to the Legislative council.
The Act introduced, for the first time, bicameralism at the center.
Legislative Assembly with 140 members and Legislative Council with 60 members.
Direct elections.
The Act also required that three of the six members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council (other than Commander-in-Chief) were to be Indians.
Provided for the establishment of the Public Service Commission.
Government of India Act of 1935
The GoI Act of 1935 provided for the establishment of an All-India Federation consisting of the Provinces and the Princely States as units, though the envisaged federation never came into being.
Three Lists: The Act divided the powers between the Centre and the units into items of three lists, namely the Federal List, the Provincial List, and the Concurrent List.
The Federal List for the Centre consisted of 59 items, the Provincial List for the provinces consisted of 54 items and the Concurrent List for both consisted of 36 items
The residuary powers were vested with the Governor-General.
The Act abolished the Dyarchy in the Provinces and introduced ‘Provincial Autonomy’.
It provided for the adoption of Dyarchy at the Centre.
Introduced bicameralism in 6 out of 11 Provinces.
These six Provinces were Assam, Bengal, Bombay, Bihar, Madras, and the United Province.
Provided for the establishment of the Federal Court.
Abolished the Council of India.
Indian Independence Act of 1947
It declared India as an Independent and Sovereign State.
Established responsible Governments at both the Centre and the Provinces.
Designated the Viceroy India and the provincial Governors as the Constitutional (normal heads).
It assigned dual functions (Constituent and Legislative) to the Constituent Assembly and declared this dominion legislature as a sovereign body.
Salient features of Constitution
Indian constitution, one of the utmost admired constitutions in the world was enacted after ‘ransacking’ all the known constitutions of the world at that time. This constitution that we have enacted has stood the test of times. Though provisions were borrowed from other constitutions, the constitution of India has several salient features that distinguish it from constitution of other countries
Some of its salient features are discussed below:
Lengthiest written constitution
Constitution can be classified into written constitution such as that of America or unwritten constitution such as that UK.
The constitution of India is a written constitution which happens to be the lengthiest written constitution in the world.
It is comprehensive, elaborate and a detailed document
The factors that have contributed to this phenomenon are: geographical factors (vastness of country and diversity), Historical factors (Influence of GoI, 1935), Single constitution for both centre and state and dominance of legal luminaries
Drawn from various sources
It has borrowed most of its provisions from the constitution of various other countries as well as from the Government of India act, 1935. Ex: structural part from GoI, 1935, independence of judiciary from USA, Fundamental Rights from USA etc
Though it is borrowed, the Indian constitution-makers made sure the borrowed features were made suitable to Indian conditions. Ex: Though we borrowed cabinet form of governance from UK, the cabinet is not all-supreme as in the case of UK.
Preamble of the constitution
The Preamble consists of the ideals, objectives and basic principles of the Constitution.
The salient features of the Constitution have developed directly and indirectly from these objectives which flow from the Preamble
It asserts India to be a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and a welfare state committed to secure justice, liberty and equality for the people and for promoting fraternity, dignity the individual, and unity and integrity of the nation.
The Preamble is the nature of Indian state and the objectives it is committed to secure for the people.
Democratic system
The authority of the government rests upon the sovereignty of the people. The people enjoy equal political rights.
Free fair and regular elections are held for electing governments
India is a republic
The Preamble declares India to be a Republic.
India is not ruled by a monarch or a nominated head of state. India has an elected head of state (President of India) who wields power for a fixed term of 5 years.
After every 5 years, the people of India indirectly elect their President.
Union of states
Article I of the Constitution declares, that “India that is Bharat is a Union of States.”
Fundamental Rights and duties
The Constitution of India grants and guarantees Fundamental Rights to its citizens.
The constitution of India confirms the basic principle that every individual is permitted to enjoy certain basic rights and part III of the Constitution deals with those rights which are known as fundamental right.The Six FR include- Right to Equality; Right to Freedom; Right Against Exploitation; Right to Freedom of Religion; Cultural and Educational Rights and Right to Constitutional Remedies (Art. 32).
The fundamental rights are justiciable and are not absolute. Reasonable constraints can be imposed keeping in view the security-requirements of the state.A new part IV (A) after the Directive Principles of State Policy was combined in the constitution by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 for fundamental duties.
Directive Principles of State Policy
A unique aspect of the Constitution is that it comprises of a chapter in the Directive Principles of State Policy.
These principles are in the nature of directives to the government to implement them to maintain social and economic democracy in the country.
Parliamentary System:
The Constituent Assembly decided to espouse Parliamentary form of government both for the Centre and the states. In Indian parliamentary system, distinction is made between nominal and real executive head.
The Council of Ministers is responsible before the Lok Sabha, The lower house of union parliament. There are close relations between executive and legislature.
Federal structure of government
A federal state is a state where a country is divided into smaller regions and the government is functioning at two levels
The Indian Constitution has envisaged a federal structure for India considering the geographical vastness and the diversity of languages, region, religions, castes, etc.
Written Constitution, supremacy of the Constitution, division of powers between Union and States, bicameral Legislature, independent Judiciary, etc. are the features of Indian federation.
Scholars describe India as a ‘Quasi-Federation’ (K.C. Wheare) or as ‘a federation with a unitary bias, or even as ‘a Unitarian federation.’
Universal adult franchise
All men and women enjoy an equal right to vote. Each adult man and woman above the age of 18 years has the right to vote.
All registered voters get the opportunity to vote in elections.
Single integrated State with Single Citizenship:
India is the single Independent and Sovereign integrated state.
All citizens enjoy a common uniform citizenship.
They are entitled to equal rights and freedoms, and equal protection of the state.
Integrated Judicial system
The Constitution provides for a single integrated judicial system common for the Union and the states.
The Supreme Court of India works at the apex level, High Courts at the state level and other courts work under the High Courts.
Independent Judiciary
It is necessary to secure the philosophical foundations of the rule of law and democracy
Firstly, the Constitution makers created a separate Judiciary independent of Legislature and Executive.
Secondly, the Constitution has ensured complete independence of Judiciary in the matters of administration and finances.
Amending the Constitution of India
Amending the Constitution of India is the procedure of making modifications to the nation’s fundamental law or supreme law.
The procedure of amendment in the constitution is laid down in Part XX (Article 368) of the Constitution of India.
This procedure guarantees the sanctity of the Constitution of India and keeps a check on uninformed power of the Parliament of India.
Judicial Review
The judiciary has significant position in Indian Constitution and it is also made independent of the legislature and the executive.
The Supreme Court of India stands at the peak of single integrated judicial system
It operates as defender of fundamental rights of Indian citizens and guardian of the Constitution.
Basic Structure doctrine
The basic structure doctrine is an Indian judicial norm that the Constitution of India has certain basic features that cannot be changed or destroyed through amendments by the parliament.
The basic features of the Constitution have not been openly defined by the Judiciary.
At least, 20 features have been described as “basic” or “essential” by the Courts in numerous cases, and have been incorporated in the basic structure.
In Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narayan case and also in the Minerva Mills case, it was witnessed that the claim of any particular feature of the Constitution to be a “basic” feature would be determined by the Court in each case that comes before it.
Secularism
In no other country of the world so many religions co-exist as in India. In view of such diversity the Constitution guarantees complete freedom of religion to all.
The citizens of our country are free to follow any religion and they enjoy equal rights without any distinction of caste, creed, religion or sex.

Over the course of over seven decades, the education system of India has evolved gradually yet phenomenally. From a literacy rate of 18% in 1951, we have moved up to 73% as of 2011. Currently, the education system in India is the strongest and largest in the world hosting more than 315 million students.
The modern education system was introduced to India in 1830 during the British rule by Lord Thomas Babington, who brought English language syllabus to the country. The syllabus was then limited to common subjects like language, science and maths. Classroom teaching became prominent and the relation between a teacher and student evolved.
In the following years, the education system started getting influenced by various institutions. During the late nineteenth century, the Theosophical Society of India and Rama Krishna Mission started to merge the western ideals of education with the Indian roots to inspire the students and make them accepted universally. Intellectuals of various nationalities came together and helped shape the education system.
Post India gained its independence from the British colonial rule, the Indian education system, previously accessible only to the elite, became available for the entire society. The government’s Central Advisory Board established two committees – one for higher education and one for secondary education – to address the challenges of education, formulate comprehensive education policies and improve the overall education landscape of the country. Currently, Indian School System consists of four levels – pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher secondary.
As of 2019, India has the most number of students in a country. Compared to the tragic situation of 1947 when the country had merely 400 schools, 19 universities with a little over 5000 students, we have come a long way. Currently, India boasts of 1.5 million plus schools, 751 universities and 35 thousand plus colleges.
The Modern Learning Approach
To modernise the knowledge delivery ways according to the needs of the 21st century generation, schools and universities are adopting various unique practices. These methodologies and innovative pedagogies enable educational institutions to develop the skills of the learners in such a manner that they are able to become self-dependent and ambitious achievers. Some of these new age methods are:
– Experiential Learning: As it is evident by the name, experiential learning is the process of learning through doing or experience, and is more specifically defined as “learning through reflection on doing. Learning only produces good results when learners have the desire to absorb the knowledge. Therefore, experiential learning comprises a hands-on approach to education that goes beyond the theoretical aspect and a classroom and strives to bring a more involved way of learning.
– Peer Learning: Peer learning has become a part of an active learning strategy in a lot of Universities and B-Schools. This form of pedagogy encourages students to interact with their classmates/peers and learn from each other beyond classroom without any supervising authority. This creates an environment of open communication which is highly crucial for learning. Research has shown that students, who engage in an environment of free communication, perform better academically.
– The Rise of Ed-Tech: Starting from the past decade, the new generation of learner is looking for courses which are experiential and interactive in nature and facilitate authentic skill development. This is where the Edtech is making its mark. According to a report by Google & KPMG, Online education has the potential to touch $1.96 billion by 2021 as everyone, from school going students to MBA aspirants to CXOs of multinational corporations and entrepreneurs, is a potential learner.
Challenges facing the education system
The successes listed above are not only numerical but point to the narrowness of the base of beneficiaries in India. Of the 27 crore people who have registered on the e-Shram portal, 94% mention that they earn less than Rs 10,000 per month. The desperation among youngsters can be gauged when a person having a PhD, MTech and MCom degree applies for a peon’s job in Uttar Pradesh. No doubt a government job is preferable but one does not do an MTech to become a peon.
Clearly, a large number of people don’t get a job appropriate to their degree or skill acquired. It is reported that substance abuse has grown among youngsters and so has violence within families. Suicides by daily workers and self-employed have increased while they are still high among farmers. This reflects hopelessness.
While the number of educational institutions has increased, facilities by and large are inadequate due to a shortage of funds and corruption. This is mostly true of the private institutions also because of the managements’ desire to maximise their profits. No wonder, ASER reports since 2005 show that 50% of children in Class 5 in rural schools cannot read or write or do arithmetic of Class 2 level. So, effectively they have not acquired the basic skills, and drop out. Worse, they can only get menial jobs that pay little, and they will remain poor during their lifetime.
A degree has become a passport to a scarce job. So, the emphasis has shifted from learning to getting marks to get admissions and jobs. Cheating is the easiest way for this and it has become rampant in our public examinations. Fake degrees are another device to get this passport. It has also spawned the culture of coaching and tuition, which is narrowly focused on imparting the skill to do well by beating the system. Regular classroom teaching is mostly indifferent, so students are forced to opt for tuition. More importantly, this kills students’ interest in learning.
There is also growing commercialisation and privatisation of education on the ground of failure of the public systems and that is increasing the divide between the well-off and the poor. The democratising influence of education is on the wane. Consequently, the insensitivity towards the marginalised sections or the differently abled has aggravated.
In order to attract students, many private institutions promote malpractices – question paper leakage, fake degrees, etc. It has fostered paying courses in public institutions and children gravitating to applied courses away from the basic courses. The downgrading of the basic courses in educational institutions will pose challenges for research in the coming years. With education becoming a mass market and weakening teacher-student relationship, testing in public examinations is largely based on multiple choice questions (MCQ). CUET introduced for Central University entrance is a recent example. Not only does MCQ not test the child’s capacity to express and logically formulate answers, but it also lends itself to cheating and coaching.

While India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most unequal countries. Inequality has been rising sharply for the last three decades. The richest have cornered a huge part of the wealth created through crony capitalism and inheritance. They are getting richer at a much faster pace while the poor are still struggling to earn a minimum wage and access quality education and healthcare services, which continue to suffer from chronic under-investment. These widening gaps and rising inequalities affect women and children the most.
Let’s look at the numbers
– The top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%, while 670 million Indians who comprise the poorest half of the population saw only a 1% increase in their wealth.
– There are 119 billionaires in India. Their number has increased from only 9 in 2000 to 101 in 2017. Between 2018 and 2022, India is estimated to produce 70 new millionaires every day.
– Billionaires’ fortunes increased by almost 10 times over a decade and their total wealth is higher than the entire Union budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19, which was at INR 24422 billion.
– Many ordinary Indians are not able to access the health care they need. 63 million of them are pushed into poverty because of healthcare costs every year – almost two people every second.
– It would take 941 years for a minimum wage worker in rural India to earn what the top paid executive at a leading Indian garment company earns in a year.
Healthcare as a luxury good
While the Indian government barely taxes its wealthiest citizens, its spending on public healthcare ranks among the lowest in the world. In the place of a well-funded health service, it has promoted an increasingly powerful commercial health sector. As a result, decent healthcare is a luxury only available to those who have the money to pay for it. While the country is a top destination for medical tourism, the poorest Indian states have infant mortality rates higher than those in sub-Saharan Africa. India accounts for 17% of global maternal deaths, and 21% of deaths among children below five years.
Extreme wealth and extreme poverty
India is a country of extreme contrasts: there are booming centres like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, with a growing number of enormously rich families, but there are also millions of people living in extreme poverty. Some 15 per cent of Indians are undernourished. One in three children under the age of five is stunted as a result of chronic undernutrition. Child mortality is higher in India than in its neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh, both of which are counted among the least developed countries (LDCs) in the world. The 2022 Global Hunger Index describes the situation in India as “serious”.
Public spending on education and health is still insufficient to meet the needs of the entire population. The quality of the services offered is often still inadequate. There are also shortcomings in the country’s infrastructure. A large proportion of the population have no or only inadequate access to basic services like water and sanitation, decent housing, waste disposal and transport. For example, about 30 per cent of India’s people do not have their own toilet.
India’s population has almost doubled over a period of 40 years. About a quarter of Indians are younger than 15 and nearly 45 per cent are younger than 25 years of age. This demographic development offers huge opportunities for economic growth and increased incomes – but only if India manages to actually make use of this potential by providing more education and more employment.
Right now almost 90 per cent of workers are employed in the informal sector, which means that they are not able to get occupational health insurance or any kind of wage compensation when they fall ill. Only a very small percentage of them are able to afford treatment by doctors outside the at times patchy basic health services provided by the public health system. There is also a lack of high-quality vocational training programmes that are accessible for all population groups and also have social recognition.
India among top countries with high income, wealth inequality: UNDP report
India has emerged among top countries with high income and wealth inequality but the share of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 25 to 15 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the UNDP said in a report.
The 2024 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report, launched on Monday, paints a qualified picture of long-term progress but also persistent disparity and widespread disruption, foreseeing a turbulent development landscape and urgently calling for new directions to boost human development.
This persistent wealth divide is driven by various factors. Globalization and technological advances have, for example, created new opportunities for some groups while leaving others behind. This typically results in the owners of capital getting a greater share of national income.
ILO data show, for example, that in Asia and the Pacific labour has a lower income share than the world average.13 As a result, workers have less income to save and invest, further worsening inequality. The most vulnerable in this vicious feedback loop include those working in the informal sector, particularly women. Inequality is further exacerbated by corruption, and weak tax policy and administration, as well as by the lack of effective social safety nets.
In India, between 2000 and 2022, per capita income soared from $442 to $2,389. And between 2004 and 2019, poverty rates (based on the international poverty measure of $2.15 per day) plummeted from 40 to 10 percent. Moreover, between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the share of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 25 to 15 percent.
Despite these successes, poverty remains persistently concentrated in states that are home to 45 percent of the country’s population but contain 62 percent of its poor. In addition, many other people are very vulnerable, hovering just above the poverty line. The groups at greater risk of falling back into poverty include women, informal workers, and inter-state migrants. Women are only 23 percent of the labour force.
Amidst rapid growth but persistent disparity, the income distribution has become more skewed. The top 10 percent of the population get 57 percent of national income and the top 1 percent get 22 percent – one of the most unequal income distributions. There are similar gaps in wealth: the top 10 percent of the population controls 65 percent of the nation’s total wealth. There is growing evidence of a strong rise in wealth inequality, mainly in the post-2000 period.
Titled ‘Making our Future: New Directions for Human Development in Asia and the Pacific’, the new report argues that unmet aspirations, heightened human insecurity, and a potentially more turbulent future create an urgent need for change.
Moreover, between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the share of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 25 to 15 per cent.
Despite these successes, poverty remains persistently concentrated in states that are home to 45 per cent of the country’s population but contain 62 per cent of its poor, the report pointed out. “In addition, many other people are very vulnerable, hovering just above the poverty line. The groups at greater risk of falling back into poverty include women, informal workers, and inter-state migrants,” the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said in its report.
Noting that women are only 23 per cent of the labour force, the report said that amidst rapid growth but persistent disparity, the income distribution has become more skewed.
“There is growing evidence of a strong rise in wealth inequality, mainly in the post-2000 period,” it said.
The report also pointed out that India is contributing significantly to the growth in the global middle class-encompassing those living between USD 12 and USD 120 a day. India is expected to contribute 24 per cent to the global middle-class growth (192 million people), it said.
While the Asia-Pacific region will account for two-thirds of global economic growth this year, income and wealth disparities are worsening, particularly in South Asia, where the wealthiest 10 per cent control over half of total income, the report said.